AFTEREFFECTS: NEW YORK SECURITY

AFTEREFFECTS: NEW YORK SECURITY; Tougher Measures Appear to Be Paying Off

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Published: May 14, 2003

Captured terrorism suspects questioned by the F.B.I. in Europe and the Middle East have told their interrogators that increased security in New York made the city a more difficult place for terrorists to operate, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday.

Mr. Kelly, in remarks at a City Council hearing and to reporters afterward, said that several weeks ago, the department learned from the F.B.I. that suspects had said that terrorist operatives now considered New York City ''a much more difficult environment in which to function.'' The commissioner said he believed that the department's counterterrorism program and a wide range of heightened security measures (known as Operation Atlas) put in place when the war began in Iraq were in part responsible for a change of outlook among some terrorist operatives.

''We believe a lot of things we've done, including our Operation Atlas, have acted as a deterrent,'' he said after testifying before the council's Public Safety Committee about the department's budget. ''That's what it's all about: prevention and deterrence. This is feedback from the F.B.I. indicating that potential terrorists see this as a much more difficult environment to operate in as a result of the things we've been doing.''

Mr. Kelly added, however, that the city remained a high-profile target and that many law enforcement and intelligence officials believed it was a question of when, not if, New York City would be attacked again.

''We think that New York is still very much seen as a target -- a high target -- on the priority lists of terrorists, and we have to do everything we can to protect it,'' Mr. Kelly said. ''We're doing things that can be seen by the public and some things that can't be seen.''

Neither Mr. Kelly nor senior F.B.I. officials would provide details on the suspects who were questioned or elaborate on what they had said. But several law enforcement officials said that the statements nonetheless represented the first indications that efforts in New York City to deter terrorist attacks had met with some success.

''Usually, in the area of prevention, its hard to gauge results, and this is actually some positive feedback that does help law enforcement gauge what the effects of the measures being taken might have in thwarting terrorism,'' a law enforcement official said.

Joseph Valiquette, a spokesman for the F.B.I., which is working closely with the Police Department on counterterrorism matters, would say only: ''Although we cannot share with the public information from the debriefings of suspects overseas, we do agree that the combined efforts of the New York City Police Department and the entire New York City law enforcement community have made New York a safer city.''

Mr. Kelly said in his testimony that the department had worked closely with the F.B.I. and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in counterterrorism efforts. He has increased the number of detectives working in the F.B.I.-N.Y.P.D. Joint Terrorist Task Force to 120, as well as posting detectives overseas in five countries.

The commissioner and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg have been aggressively lobbying Washington for federal funds to support the department's efforts to prevent an attack. The department has reassigned more than 1,000 officers to counterterrorism duties and spent $151.4 million on counterterrorism measures. In addition, Mr. Kelly said, Operation Atlas has cost the department as much as $4.9 million a week since the war began, at a time when the department is facing severe fiscal constraints and has shrunk to about 36,000 officers from a high of about 41,000. During the budget hearing, he said the department was seeking $261 million for counterterrorism training and equipment and the reinforcement of department buildings, as well as $200 million for salary and overtime costs.

''We're spending a significant amount of money and we're hoping to get reimbursed by the federal government for the things that we're doing,'' Mr. Kelly said.

Photo: Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, center, at a hearing on public safety yesterday with Edward Allocco, left, the deputy commissioner for management and budget, and Chief Joseph J. Esposito. (Michael Nagle for The New York Times)